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Tell a story in the form of a police report, news article, or journal entry about an incredible (or impossible) event.

Posted in Short Story on Aug 22, 2025

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✍️ 46 stories

The Midnight Pub

Submitted to Contest #317

The name “The Midnight Pub” was not its own but given by desperate hopefuls and the lucky few who claimed to step inside. Nestled, or rather hidden in Soho, London, the pub has been compared to Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011), for its share a strikingly similar, impossible premise. Yet this is not cinema. This is rumor, myth and obsession. And, if you believe the stories, this is reality. No one had The Midnight Pub on their 2025 bingo card. It doesn't appear on Google Maps. It has no phone number, no listed owner, no records in city ...

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It's raining frogs

Submitted to Contest #317

“Mummy, look!” Vicky glanced at the tv screen.“No way,” she mouthed.“Oh, dammit.” Her cup of cocoa landed at her feet, the milky brown liquid soaking into her socks. “What is that, mummy?”“Um, I’m not sure, honey.”What was it? A bony arm dangled across the screen. Vicky leaned forward, staring. She reached for Skye, pulling the 10-year-old close while fumbling for the remote and turning up the sound.They both pulled back when the body belonging to the bony arm came into view. A scaly green creature with big, bulbous eyes and a wide grinning ...

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Reports from the Edge of Order and Chaos: Code 6 Crisis at SuperMart

Submitted to Contest #317

Author’s Note: Prepared in strict compliance with Departmental Sarcasm Protocol 6.5. No towels, vending machines, or Swiffers were harmed in this report and all grapes confirmed organic. It began with a single phrase — “Code 6 in Housewares” — and ended with paperwork nobody will care about except the people now worshipping the miracle towels.Incident Report – Disturbance at SuperMart Case #: 25-0719-143 Date: June 6, 2025 Officer: Sgt. P. Daniels (still wondering why I didn’t call in sick — or why we keep pretending nonsense is order) Summa...

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The Hitchhiker

Submitted to Contest #317

Date of Incident: June 3rd, 2005Case Number: 67 This account is one of the more recent cases. As I continue to investigate the high strangeness surrounding the town of Selene, I realize that many of these cases require some back story. I will lay out for you the events of what happened on June 3rd and then recall for you the history of this small junction in Selene. The frightful events that occurred that day have all been relayed by Lissa Sanders: "That afternoon, my husband and I had gotten lost on our way to Selene. Without knowing it...

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Insurance Claim 202 – Item 3: “The Heroic Exploits of Juniper J”

Submitted to Contest #317

Page 1[Note: If Matthew is reading this – GET OUT OF MY STUFF, BUTT MUNCHER] Page 2 First thing, a couple of points: 1: This is NOT a diary. Diaries or for little girls to fill with baby stuff and draw hearts over the I’s. I’m ten, that’s closer to a teenager than a baby. This is a journal logbook historical document of my heroics. 2. I am NOT writing this because Dr. Shwartz told me to. What they wanted was me to write down all my feelings: how I get angry sometimes, when I’m scared, my worries about the world blah blah blah. That’s not wha...

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From Bernadette

Submitted to Contest #317

Sometime in 2006 Papsi: If you're reading this letter, then something has already happened to me. I just want to tell you that I love you, and I appreciate everything you've done for me after Kuya died. Please stop blaming yourself for what he did. You and Mamsi don't deserve to suffer like this. He had always blamed you for every bad decision he made. You know how stubborn he was. It wasn't your fault that he fell blindly in love with the wrong girl. I'm sorry if I didn't tell you what was happening to me. I was at the bombing site because ...

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I Will Return

Submitted to Contest #317

“Some lives are not lived once but over and over, until the earth itself remembers.” The Cornish Gazette13th April, 1938 LOCAL MAN RETURNS AFTER BEING PRESUMED DEAD Three years after his body was recovered from the Helford estuary, William Covington, 26, has returned to Cornwall, claiming to have been “abroad” during his absence. No official records have surfaced to explain his survival. Friends and family describe him as unchanged in appearance, despite the passing years. When asked for comment, Mr. Covington simply replied: “I have always...

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“The Immortal at My Door”

Submitted to Contest #317

Journal Entry – October 12th, 2023 I am an old woman now. My hands shake as I write this, though I tell myself it is the chill of autumn and not the chill of memory. I swore I would never record what happened that night, but time has a way of gnawing at silence. My children are grown, my grandchildren scattered, and the story—our story—sits inside me like a stone. Tonight, in the diner on Fifth Street, I saw him again. And that stone cracked. He sat in the far corner, exactly as I remembered him, as though forty years had been nothing more t...

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Narrative of Officer J.C. Watts, K311, Concerning the Events Occurring on 11Aug2023

Submitted to Contest #317

O1 J.C. Watts King 311 The following is my narrative concerning the events of a call assigned to me while working King Squad, 3rd Shift, Beat 11 on 11Aug2023. Per the call log, I was radio assigned a disturbance call in the 13000 block of East 46th Street North by dispatch at 2208 hours. As I recall, the disturbance was in regards to a loud booming sound and a flash of light near the Tulsa landfill. The area of 13000 East 46th Street North is rural with only a small number of residences spread throughout the area. Per dispatch, there we...

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Digital Diary Case files

Submitted to Contest #317

The Times-Picayune — Special CoverageThe Digital Diary CaseFrench Quarter, New Orleans — March 2011 Article 1 — March 4, 2011Teen Reports Laptop Files Predict Fatalities; Police Seize DeviceBy Camille Robichaux, Staff WriterNEW ORLEANS — Police are investigating a French Quarter teenager’s report that her laptop has been generating documents predicting fatal incidents before they occur.According to an incident report filed Thursday, the family of Elise Landry, 15, contacted authorities after the student discovered multiple Microsoft Word fi...

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Cloverville at Odds: Singing Flowers Cause Treble in Community

Submitted to Contest #317

What was once hailed as a modern marvel of magical discovery has quickly turned into a flashpoint in the community, as the public becomes sharply divided over the Magical Floral Reanimation Project. Recent polling shows a sharp decline in support for the Department of Magical Landscaping’s recent “Garden Song” installation. ”It was cute at first,” said Barney Larson, 47, who lives next to the garden installation. “But the daffodils have gotten off key, the gardenias have switched solely to opera, and the pansies have moved onto stand-up come...

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A Private Inquiry

Submitted to Contest #317

[DISSERTATION]_SavedSources_9683-02-20.dprt [INCOMING DATA PACKET][DATA DECRYPTION COMPLETE] SECURE MESSAGE LOG: Patch,I am not often contacted by fellow Aegismen from our days in service. It has been my great pleasure to assist you in your research for the dissertation you are writing on the “History of Atheos: An Exploration of Humanity’s Response to the Apocalypse.” (An excellent title to be sure, though perhaps a bit wordy?). My search of the archives proved to be useful, and I have thus attached the most relevant of my findings accordin...

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Staircase to Vastness

Submitted to Contest #317

Staircase to Nowhere? Students Report Vanishing Passage at Midnight.Seventeen students insist the stairs lead to nowhere from the upper floors of the Red Stone University library, after midnight – though details differ by witness. Can you trust a staircase to take you where you need to go? The night-owls of Red Stone University claim the opposite after spending Tuesday night at the 24/7 study hall. Although exam season has yet to begin, a few professors have already set their deadlines before Christmas. Originally intended as a relief from t...

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When Pigs Fly

Submitted to Contest #317

Pigskin soared across Kent State University's football field at 12:30pm on August 25th, wowing onlookers. It wasn't a dazzling new football team gearing up for a new season, though. Only one thing is rarer than Kent winning a game, and that happened today on their home turf. A pig flew through the sky.Measured by the football field's lines, the pig soared 21.3 yards. He was launched from a device the head scientist said he built himself, but looks suspiciously like a diving tower from the pool, complete with the school's logo on the side.“I ...

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Dear Nostalgic Future Me

Submitted to Contest #317

September 3, 2025Dear Nostalgic Future Me, You’ll probably never read this, what with having been through it yourself, but if I don’t write it down now.. Well, you know what happens then. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “it started out like every other typical day” but you’d be wrong. You’ll remember what day I’m writing about, but let’s begin. First, I actually woke up to my alarm clock ON THE FIRST QUACK and ON THE FIRST ALARM! That alone should’ve been a warning, but unfortunately, I don’t have the foresight that you do. Now, quit distr...

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